In a new series of Volkswagen (VW) commercials, which were filmed in South Africa by UK based production company The Mob, the premise of Hollywood action films is used to demonstrate the car’s ability to keep its passengers safe.
The adverts show high-speed scenes being inadvertently disrupted by VW’s safe distance and crash prevention technology, and will feature in cinema’s in the UK.
John Brocklehurst, Managing Director and Executive Producer at The Mob explains, “They were filmed in South Africa. Because these were not traditional ads we didn’t use traditional locations. The flyover for Bus has been used in ads before but you’ve never seen an ad like this before – it was shot as a movie for the movies by a movie crew.’
The Bus commercial features a heroic attempt at stopping a hijacked bus from the bonnet of a VW, which fails due to the car’s speed reducing feature. Similarly in the Explosion advert, a man is stopped from blowing up a supply of dangerous chemicals when his VW, which he leaps from in an attempt to crash the car, detects the approaching impact and slows down to a halt.
“Explosion was shot at a deserted dynamite mine,’ Brocklehurst continues, “This was by far the most difficult location to find as the ad needed a very specific location because of the complicated stunts involved. We needed a very long run up to the building where the bad guys were stealing the dangerous chemicals. We shot each script in one day so everything had to be in one large location each day.”
The commercials were conceptualised by adam&eveDDB London, directed by Paul WS Anderson (Resident Evil, The Three Musketeers) and produced locally by Moonlighting Film Production Services.
“I can honestly say we had one of the best crews I have ever shot with. The stuntmen were phenomenal, nothing was any trouble and they moved super-quick but always safe,’ adds Brocklehurst.
Watch the Bus commercial.
Watch the Explosion commercial.
